


King of the Woodlands

by Silvials



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Laurent and his fur babies, M/M, and Damen grudgingly co-parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29822556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvials/pseuds/Silvials
Summary: Damen knew Laurent was good with animals. He was the only one who always managed to calm spooked horses down, and he was the first person the palace hounds would run to whenever they wanted to be pet. Damen didn’t think too much about it at first, but after a while, he started to suspect that Laurent had the ability to talk to animals.Or Laurent is a Disney Princess with a habit of collecting strays.
Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 91





	King of the Woodlands

I.

Damen knew Laurent was good with animals. He was the only one who always managed to calm spooked horses down, and he was the first person the palace hounds would run to whenever they wanted to be pet. Damen didn’t think too much about it at first, but after a while, he started to suspect that Laurent had the ability to talk to animals.

It began when he woke up one morning to find Laurent staring intently out a window. He sat up to see what was wrong, but Laurent’s posture was relaxed, and he didn’t seem to be deep in thought. “What are you doing?” Damen asked.

“There is a deer outside the palace,” Laurent said in lieu of an answer.

Damen strode over to where Laurent was standing and followed the direction of his gaze. Indeed, there was a deer wandering around the courtyard. It stumbled more than it walked, and it was so skittish that it darted away at the slightest movement from the passing guards.

“It could be injured,” Laurent said without taking his eyes off the deer. “Or it might just be a fawn.”

“We could ask the stablehand to check on it.”

“Yes,” Laurent replied absently.

Damen expected him to call for a servant, but instead, Laurent shrugged on his jacket and glided out of the room. Damen stayed by the window, watching as the deer settled down on a patch of grass and continued to survey its surroundings nervously. Moments later, he saw the stablehand approaching the deer with Laurent in tow.

The deer rose on unsteady legs at the sight of the stablehand. It looked ready to bolt, but then Laurent held the stablehand back and approached the deer himself. He crouched down in an effort to make himself appear smaller, and even though the deer shied away from him at first, it didn’t run away immediately. Laurent held out his hand, and much to Damen’s surprise, the deer walked towards it and allowed Laurent to pet its head. Then, Laurent turned to speak to the stablehand, and the deer took the opportunity to climb fully onto his lap.

Intrigued, Damen abandoned his place by the window and made his way down the hall. The stablehand had already left by the time he arrived at the courtyard, but Laurent was still sitting cross-legged on the grass while the deer was completely blissed out on his lap.

“Is it alright?” Damen asked, careful to keep his footsteps light.

“He’s not injured, he just doesn’t know how to walk yet,” Laurent answered while smiling lovingly at the deer. “The stablehand said there’s a chance he doesn’t have a mother anymore, but it’s best to wait until the end of the day in case she returns.”

“Are you planning to keep him company the whole time?”

“I would if I was free,” Laurent said, his expression unmistakably pleading. The sight made Damen’s heart swell.

“I can handle our duties for the day.”

Laurent’s face immediately lit up at his offer. “Thank you,” he said, and then after a moment’s hesitation, he added. “Can we keep him...if he doesn’t have a mother?”

The question took Damen by surprise, but he had never been able to deny Laurent before, and he wasn’t about to do it now. “Sure,” he replied even though his mind had come up with at least a dozen protests. “But where will he stay?”

Laurent shrugged. “In our chambers perhaps?”

The thought of having a forest animal inhabiting their bedroom didn’t seem appealing to Damen, but he chose not to voice his opinions yet. “Alright,” he said while silently hoping the deer’s mother would come back soon. “I should probably go.”

He leaned down to kiss Laurent goodbye, and the motioned must have disturbed the deer’s slumber. It opened its eyes and regarded Damen warily, but it fell asleep again after Laurent cooed at it and stroked its head.

Damen had already seen how sweet Laurent could be, but this was another level of tenderness that made his heart constrict strangely. He had to force himself to go back inside the palace because if he stayed any longer, he would end up staring at Laurent all day, and their kingdoms would fall apart out of negligence.

Later, when Damen finished his joint meeting with the Veretian Council and the Kyroi, he looked outside to check on Laurent and saw him leading the fawn towards something. Upon closer inspection, he realized there was a larger deer standing at the edge of the forest, right outside the palace gates. Laurent nudged the fawn towards it, and after a great deal of sniffing, the larger deer turned around and made its way back to the forest with the fawn following close on its heels.

Laurent seemed a little despondent when he returned to their chambers that night, but he perked up when Damen promised they could keep the next stray they find.

II.

Damen spoke a little too soon, because the next stray came in the form of a feral cat that snuck into the palace while there were ongoing preparations for an important banquet. The cat had apparently been stirring up chaos all morning, scratching the drapes into tatters and constantly stealing food from the kitchen. It was a nuisance, but it was also a trivial matter that didn’t require the attention of the kings. They only found out about it because they happened to pass by the great hall and saw a cluster of servants gathered around one of the display cabinets.

“What’s the matter?” Laurent asked, making half of the servants jump.

“Nothing to be concerned about, Your Majesty,” one of them said. “It’s just a stray cat causing trouble.”

That piqued Laurent’s interest. “A cat?”

“Yes, You Majesty.”

“And it’s under that cabinet?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, but we’ll get it out soon.”

“You better give it some space then,” Laurent suggested. “It must be terrified.”

The servants collectively took a step back, then much to everyone’s shock, the King of Vere got down on all fours to peer under the cabinet. His actions predictably elicited aghast reactions from the servants.

“Your Majesty!”

“Careful, Your Majesty!”

“It’s _feral,_ Your Majesty. You might get scratched.”

“He can handle it,” Damen told the servants before they strained themselves in panic.

Laurent’s first attempt at extracting the cat was met with a lot of hissing, and Damen wondered if he should ask someone to call Paschal in case Laurent did get maimed. The second attempt was a little more successful as the cat stuck its head out and sniffed Laurent’s hand. A few moments later, it crawled out from under the cabinet completely and was rubbing itself all over Laurent.

“She seems friendly,” Laurent said while scratching the cat behind the ears. Damen wasn’t even surprised that he was able to determine its gender immediately.

The servants winced as they watched Laurent pick up the cat, most likely expecting a lot of hissing and scratching, but the cat was docile in Laurent’s arms, and Laurent was looking at it as if it was his newborn child. Damen knew exactly where this was going.

“Are cats allowed to bathe?” Laurent asked, eying the cat’s matted white fur.

“I don’t think it will appreciate it,” one of the wide-eyed servants answered.

“No matter, I’ll take care of her,” Laurent said, then strode away with the cat cradled in his arms.

The servants stared after him.

“You can go back to work now,” Damen told them. He was met with a chorus of ‘Yes, Exalted’ before he followed Laurent down the hall.

Laurent insisted on bathing the cat himself, and Damen tried to help him to the best of his abilities. It was a long arduous process, but even though the cat clearly hated every minute of it, she didn’t bite or scratch Laurent, nor did she make any attempts to run away.

The banquet was already well underway by the time they arrived, and when Nikandros asked where they’ve been, Damen didn’t know how to explain that they spent the whole afternoon pampering a cat.

On the next few days, it became clear that the cat adored Laurent but barely tolerated Damen’s presence. She always sat by Laurent’s feet even when he was too busy to pay attention to her, but she rebuffed all of Damen’s attempts to pet her. She slept on Damen’s side of the bed, as if she belonged there, and refused to move unless Laurent gently nudged her away. She deliberately knocked things off Damen’s desk, and Damen swore she looked at him smugly whenever Laurent picked her up for a cuddle. Damen never thought he would be competing with a cat for Laurent’s affection, but he supposed it was worth enduring if it would appease Laurent’s desire to adopt stray animals.

III.

It didn’t end with the cat.

A few weeks later, a pigeon landed on their balcony and refused to leave. It didn’t seem out of place at first. Birds tended to linger on their balcony every morning because Laurent had a habit of feeding them. They would usually fly away on their own once they’ve eaten their fill, but this particular pigeon stayed even though the rest of its flock had departed.

Damen’s desk had a clear view of the balcony, so he stood up and went over to investigate. The pigeon hobbled away from him as he approached but made no move to take off. Something was clearly wrong with its wings, but it wouldn’t let Damen close enough to assess the damage. Damen sighed and strode back into their chambers to call Laurent.

Laurent emerged moments later. All he had to do was hold out his hands, and the bird was practically throwing itself at him.

“Can you talk to animals?” Damen asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

Laurent gave him a perplexed look. “I don’t think so?”

“They seem to respond well to you,” Damen pointed out.

“Perhaps they just think you’re large and intimidating,” Laurent said wryly. He might have a point.

The pigeon allowed Laurent to inspect it but squawked loudly in protest when he tugged gently on one of its wings.

“It doesn’t seem to be broken,” Laurent said, his brows furrowed. The pigeon tried to squirm out his hold, but it calmed down again when Laurent stroked its feathers. “Do you think Paschal will know what’s wrong?”

Damen suspected Paschal knew nothing about bird anatomy, but he would likely be more successful in determining the bird’s injuries compared to their pointless prodding. “I can go fetch him.”

Paschal was rightfully confused when he entered the room and was promptly presented with a pigeon.

“I’ve never worked with birds before,” he said, more to himself than to anyone else. “I’ll see what I can do, Your Majesty.” He took the bird from Laurent’s grasp and awkwardly held it up to examine it.

At some point, the cat—which was now named Chérie, wandered in and began hissing at the sight of the pigeon. This almost resulted in chaos, as Chérie jumped onto a table in attempt to claw at the pigeon, while the pigeon screeched and her and tried to fling itself out of Paschal’s grasp. Luckily, Laurent was able to calm Chérie down by picking her up and smothering her with affection.

With the cat distracted, Paschal carried on with his work. After a few minutes of prodding, he declared that the pigeon had a sprained shoulder. “I can make a cast for it,” he said. “But it will have to stay in the palace while it recovers.”

Laurent agreed immediately. Damen was a little more hesitant, and for the first time, it seemed like the cat shared his sentiments.

They kept Chérie and the pigeon in separate rooms, which meant the pigeon stayed in the antechamber that also served as their workplace. It was an unobtrusive presence most of the time, but it seemed to get more mischievous every time someone new entered the room. The advisers, messengers, and anyone else who might have business with the kings had to stoically endure being pecked at by a bird. The servants also had to be careful whenever they brought food into the room because there was a high chance of getting ambushed at the doorway.

Damen found the pigeon annoying and amusing at the same time, so when Laurent allowed him the honor of naming it, he chose to call it by an Akielon term that roughly translated to ‘garbage dove’. Laurent didn’t know, of course.

The pigeon stayed with them as it recovered and continued to stay with them even after it regained its ability to flap around and terrorize the rest of the palace staff.

IV.

The fourth time it happened, they were passing through a town when they saw a lamb escape from a slaughterhouse. Laurent dismounted and ran after it immediately. The guards mistook his sudden departure as a sign of danger and almost took off after him, but Damen passed them his reins and told them to watch the horses before following Laurent into the forest by himself.

Not even Laurent’s charms could work on the lamb apparently. It startled at the sound of crunching leaves under their feet and ran deeper and deeper into the forest the more they pursued it. At this point, it had already outrun its fate on the chopping block, but Laurent was still adamant on catching it. They followed the lamb into the heart of the forest, where it finally began to slow down. It was either too tired to run or had decided they weren’t a threat. Damen hoped it was the latter because they would most likely get lost if they went any further.

The lamb stopped once it reached a clearing and turned around as if to assess them. Damen hung back behind the trees while Laurent stepped into the clearing and sat down on the grass, beckoning the lamb to approach him. The lamb ignored him in favor of grazing the grass, which was strange since most animals were instantly enamored with Laurent, but perhaps this one was just too hungry to care. It didn’t show any outward signs of bolting though, so Laurent took the opportunity to slide closer to it. At last, the lamb raised its head to acknowledge Laurent. It walked over to sniff him but didn’t climb into his lap like the fawn did. Instead, it was Laurent who reached out and gathered the lamb into an embrace. The lamb surprisingly didn’t try to squirm away but rested its head on Laurent’s shoulder.

They made quite an adorable sight, and Damen couldn’t help but saunter over to them. The lamb didn’t seem to care that he was approaching, so he didn’t hesitate to sit down next to Laurent

“He was trembling,” Laurent said as an explanation to why he was hugging the lamb.

Damen was delighted by the fact that he was the only one who got to see this side of Laurent, so he kissed him, slow and sweet, to quell the ridiculous fluttering of his heart. The lamb bleated when they took too long to pull away, as if complaining about the sudden loss of space, and Damen laughed at his sullen expression.

“He doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

“He’ll learn to eventually. You happen to be infuriatingly lovable.”

Damen laughed again. “So, I assume we’re keeping him?”

“Yes,” Laurent replied. “I’m not leaving him alone in a forest.”

“Alright,” Damen said while thinking about their ever-growing collection of strays. “I wonder if he would get along with the others.” He was referring to Chérie and the pigeon, who had formed a reluctant truce after being forced to share the same living quarters for a month. That truce would most likely be broken once they introduced another animal.

“I’m sure he will,” Laurent said and patted the lamb’s head. “He seems like a sweetheart.”

They spent the next few minutes discussing how they were supposed to transport the lamb from the forest to the town and back to the palace. It was a relatively small animal, but it couldn’t exactly be carried around like a cat. They didn’t have any wagons either since they all came on horseback. They searched around the clearing for something that can be fashioned into a leash, but the problem solved itself when they realized the lamb was following Laurent around on its own.

Laurent was right when he said the lamb seemed like a sweetheart. He was easily the most well-behaved animal they adopted. He didn’t exactly get along with the cat and the pigeon, but he didn’t go out of his way to antagonize them either. He waited patiently for his food and didn’t steal from any of the servants. He also liked to accompany them to their meetings. In fact, he was present so often that he could technically be considered an honorary member of the Council and the Kyroi. The only downside was he had the tendency to bleat at the most inappropriate times, and he liked to chew on chitons (Nikandros’ in particular). Damen suspected Laurent had trained him to do that.

The lamb was also the only animal that warmed up to Damen the same way it did to Laurent, so he couldn’t exactly be blamed for having a favorite.

V.

Damen was called away to Ios for more than month to settle a border dispute between two Kyroi. It took a lot longer than he would have liked, but he and Laurent had already grown accustomed to being apart because of their respective duties to their kingdoms. They always compensated for the distance by writing letters to each other, but while Laurent used to write about mundane happenings and how much he missed Damen, he now wrote about what the animals were up to while Damen was away. It was amusing to read, especially when the updates came after long paragraphs about revised tax policies and new treaties. 

Damen had to admit he missed the animals—even the nuisance of a cat that liked to sit on his face every morning. He was surprisingly eager to be reunited with them on his way back to Marlas, although he couldn’t help but wonder how many strays Laurent collected while he was away. Laurent didn’t mention adopting any new animals, but a lot could happen in the week it took to deliver his letters.

When Damen arrived at the palace, he stood in the hallway outside their chambers and braced himself for what he will find on the other side of the door.

“Laurent,” he said upon entering. “Please tell me that’s not a snake.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's all fun and games until one of the animals jumps into their bed while they're having sex.
> 
> This fic was inspired by this [lovely artwork](https://silvials.tumblr.com/post/642082038592258048). Feel free to share your thoughts. Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Also, feel free to drop by and say hi on [Tumblr](http://silvials.tumblr.com/). I have a lot more ficlets over there.


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